Good evening, these are the top coronavirus headlines tonight:
Top headlines:
- CEO leaving Montreal health authority after report describing ‘chaos’ of LTC homes at start of pandemic
- Regular travel and public health measures can’t co-exist, says Canadian Airport Council
- North Korea COVID-19 outbreak is ‘worrying’ for new variants, says WHO official
In the past seven days, there were 376 deaths from COVID-19 nationally, down 23 per cent over the same period. At least 5,440 people are being treated in hospitals and 353 are in the ICU.
Canada’s inoculation rate is 15th among countries with a population of one million or more people.
Sources: Canada data is compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data is from Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus explainers: Coronavirus in maps and charts • Tracking vaccine doses
COVID-19 updates from Canada and the world
- The head of the Montreal health authority that responded to the pandemic disaster at the Herron nursing home will leave her job in July, in the wake of a coroner’s report that criticized her handling of the crisis.
- Ottawa Police Interim Chief Steve Bell told a parliamentary committee today that the Ottawa Police Service did not make a direct request for the invocation of the federal Emergencies Act.
- Quebec is reporting 14 more deaths linked to COVID-19 and a 23-patient jump in the number of hospitalizations associated with the disease. Ontario is reporting 11 new deaths linked to COVID-19 today.
- A senior World Health Organization official said today that high levels of transmission of the coronavirus among unvaccinated people, such as in North Korea, creates a higher risk of new variants.
- Following a rare but peaceful protest Sunday at Peking University in Beijing over the school’s decision to erect a sheet-metal wall to keep students sequestered on campus, the university has backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions.
- New York health officials put the city on “high COVID alert” today after rising case counts and hospitalizations reached a level that could put substantial pressure on the health care system. Also in the U.S., the use of oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid has jumped 315 per cent over the past four weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday.
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Pandemic recovery
- The Canadian Airports Council is blaming COVID-19 protocols and is again calling on the federal government to do away with random tests and public health questions at customs to ease the serious delays for international arrivals.
- Before the pandemic, malls were already feeling the pressure. Now, the concept of the mall is getting a makeover, and leading to a seismic reinvention of the real-life retail experience.
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Globe opinion
Robert Bell, Anne Golden, Paul Alofs and Lionel Robins: The pandemic revealed brutal realities about long-term care. Canada has a moral obligation to fix the system
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Information centre
- Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- When will COVID-19 be endemic? The four factors that will shape the virus’s future
- Wastewater is filling the COVID-19 data gap
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